1. The Commission determined in a number of cases—perhaps in the case of most
of the prisoners who were found in prisons and detention camps—that prisoners
were deprived of their liberty beginning the first days following September
11, 1973, without being charged with any crime and without being called to testify
before any authority, except the arresting agents.

It is true that the Constitution of the Republic does not place a time limit
on deprivation of liberty that can be ordered by the Executive Branch in cases
of internal disturbance. But it is also true that the Constitution assumes that
the Executive Branch will exercise that power under the control of a Congress
composed of representatives of various political parties and empowered to demand
an accounting of the Executive Branch for any use it may make of that authority.

2. The dissolution of the Parliamentary Branch of the Government, ordered
by the Military Junta, along with the absolute outlawing of some parties and
the prohibition of any activity by all the others, aggravated by silencing any
criticism that might come from the major organs of the media, and by the passivity
of some of the Magistrates of the Judiciary, has caused the disappearance of
any obstacle in the way of the completely discretional exercise of the power
conferred on the Executive Branch by the Constitution.

3. It is very difficult to understand why girls and boys of 16 years of age
are deprived of liberty, as constituting a danger for the maintenance of order,
for over 10 months; why persons are kept in jail without a single charge brought
against them, when foreign countries offer to take them into their territory,
and their diplomats undertake to ensure their effective transfer; and shy, after
so much time of deprivation of liberty, there was the attempt at the time of
the Commission's visit to justify prolonged detention for some prisoners by
stating that investigations were being made to determine whether there was any
tax violation.

In this way, a constitutional mechanism created to ensure order and the observance
of democratic institutions had been transformed into a factor of disturbance
in the social life, and into an instrument to attack basic rights.

5. In addition, the indiscriminate use of the power of administrative arrest
of persons had substantially affected the possibility of duly counting or registering
prisoners, to duly verify their identity. The number of cases in which persons
disappeared after their arrest and whose whereabouts were unknown was very high.
This of course constituted one of the factors causing the greatest concern and
anxiety in Chilean families. There were hundreds of persons who were anxious
to know the whereabouts of a parent, a spouse, or a child. The office installed
by the Government of Santiago to provide that information was inadequate to
reply to such questions.

6. Regarding this problem, the selfless task performed by the United Nations
Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees should be stressed.

Similarly, the private agency called the National Commission for Aid to Refugees
has done extraordinary work and brought tranquility to many families by locating
persons regarding whom there was no information.

Notes______________

1 “When the security of those attacked so requires, the malefactor(s)
may be killed on the spot.”